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So here is my dilemma. I recently got an offer from my summer firm and have until early September to decide. The firm is in a secondary market city and has a great reputation in the area, but is probably not well known elsewhere. For what its worth, the base salary as a first year would be around 135 K (more than the market average) and based on my summer there i'm sure i'll get to do really substantive work much earlier than elsewhere. The hours also seemed more than reasonable. In short, its a great firm with a great culture.

The problem is that I just really don't want to live in that city. While I enjoyed my work, I was pretty much miserable every second I was out of the office and don't really see myself getting used to the culture there.

The conventional wisdom on this would be to take the offer and try to apply my way to a job in the DC area (where I want to end up) as soon as possible. The problem is that at least a year or two to be unhappy is not something to ignore. I'm also worried that once I start working there it would be hard to move to the primary market I want - not to mention that i'd have to take two bar tests. On the other hand, rolling the dice and potentially getting nothing is pretty daunting. Any insight on this, or what you would do in my position would be appreciated! Thanks!

P.S: i'm top 35ish% at T-5 with few years of WE.

I don't think you're in a position to turn down the offer unless you have another, better offer in hand. The risk of kneecapping your career by turning down your offer and ending up with nothing is too great. I don't see why you can't accept the offer, keep looking for jobs, and back out if something better comes along. Granted, that's kind of a shitty thing to do, and you'll burn bridges with your old firm, but I think it's kind of TCR in this particular case.